Deja Vu
by BethSHeartbeat
Summary: Zoe Hanna receives a bunch of flowers and it takes her a minute to realise that it's been two years since Max sent her the bouquet that started everything. Thinking it's a joke she runs away, but who sent the flowers this time?
"Dr Hanna." Noel called down the corridor as he spotted a clearly exhausted Zoe escape to the safety of her office.

"If you've not come to tell me about a group trip to the pub where someone is willing to buy me a very large drink then I'm busy." Zoe told him, not turning to face him as she continued searching through her bag to find the painkillers that she was 90% sure she'd put in her bag that morning, to ease the headache which always came on about this time of day.

"Erm no, these were delivered for you." His words caused her to look up, only then did she spot the large bouquet of white lilies that the receptionist was carrying. Without exchanging any further words, Noel had left the room leaving the flowers on Zoe's desk.

"Someone's popular." Dylan commented as he walked past her office, unwilling to stop in case she tried to start a conversation with him over the meaning of the flowers.

"Something like that." She mumbled to herself as she finally took the small card that was poking between two of the flowers. Turning it over in her hand, she stopped suddenly as she remembered the last time this had happened, the flowers had changed her life and mostly for the better. From behind her she heard her phone buzz into life, prompting her to turn to see the illuminated screen which showed the date. 12/04/16, two years to the day since Max had sent her the first lot of flowers. Tears began to cloud her gaze and an odd nauseous feeling spread through her stomach as she realised what she'd gained and lost in that time, and then when she realised that the flowers which now lay in front of her were more than likely someone's idea of a joke. Half expecting the department to be watching her and laughing, she turned but found everyone busy working.

She needed to get out, the flowers in the room were a cruel reminder of what had been the best thing in her life

"Dr Hanna." Rita tried as she ran after Zoe, who was now out walking across the wet gravel that marked the path between the entrance to the ED and the pub. Zoe continued to walk, getting quicker as she heard Rita's footsteps. She was determined that she wasn't speaking to anyone until she'd at least had a large gin and tonic, and that included Rita. "Zoe? Are you..." She began again as they made it to the bar.

"Large gin and tonic please." Zoe interrupted as she caught the attention of the barman, from behind her she could hear the sound of everyone talking but couldn't make out individual words or even voices. She could tell that Rita was no longer by her side despite having not looked up, but it wasn't long before she felt the presence of someone beside her.

"£3.20 please." The barman spoke as he placed the glass down in front of Zoe, awakening her once again from her thoughts.

"Bad day?" The person asked as they watched Zoe rub at her temples before taking a large sip of the drink she'd just purchased.

"I'm sorry Rita, it's been a bad day and one that's been far too long." Zoe sighed, still not bothering to look anywhere but the glass in front of her.

"I knew you weren't listening, and Rita?!" The voice asked as they burst into laughter. "I know I have a sore throat but it must be worse than I thought if you think I'm Rita." He teased, it was the laugh that she'd recognise anywhere. The sound that was engrained in her mind, the sound that she was sure was her favourite thing after his smile.

"Max." She sighed happily as she finally moved so she could see him.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked, his voice automatically comforting her in a way that only he'd ever been able to manage. She watched him for a moment, trying to decide whether he was being genuine before giving up in frustration. As tears yet again began to cloud her vision, she felt herself being pulled away from the bar and into the cold air. She'd barely noticed that they were back to where they'd shared their first kiss almost two years ago to the hour.

"Was it you?" The words escaped her mouth, the sadness was clear as the words came out in a whisper.

"The flowers?" It was all the clarification she needed, almost immediately she'd pulled her hand away from his and began to walk away. She knew she'd hurt Max a lot but this really was a low blow. It was a few seconds before Max's brain had caught up and managed to grab Zoe's hand again as he followed her.

"Get off of me, I need to go home. I thought we were doing okay, did you really need to be so cruel?" She asked, unable to stop the tears that spilled down her cheeks nor the cracks in her voice.

"It's not like that, I promise. Do you really think I could do that? Zoe stop." Max stood in front of her, determined to stop her moving any further away. Without thinking he moved forward and kissed her, Zoe stood still for a second, unsure of how she was supposed to respond but this was Max, the man she could never resist, so she kissed him back. "Two years ago you changed my life, two years ago I was at the beginning of a fight for a woman who was way out of my league."

"I was never out of your league." She sighed as she took a step back, determined to be a little space between them despite their interlinked hands.

"I heard you the other day, you were talking to that guy from the care home who had just proposed." Zoe stared at him for a moment, she dealt with multiple patients every day and remembering individual patients that quickly was a struggle sometimes. "Something about accepting the love we think we deserve."

"I didn't know you were there." Zoe admitted quietly.

"I know you didn't, you're never normally that honest about your feelings unless you can pass it off as advice to others. That's not important, what's important is that I heard you and everything clicked into place. What are we doing here? From where I stand we're just wasting time, I know why you did what you did and I hope now you know that you deserve all the love in the world. I realised that when I left you it confirmed that you didn't deserve love but I never stopped loving you. You deserve so much and I'm going to prove that to you, because it's still you Zoe and it always will be."

"I don't deserve you Max, you're worth so much more than me."

"Did you not hear me? It's still you Zo and it always will be."

 **A/N Thank you for reading my one shot fic, sorry that it's late but I'm currently quite ill. For that reason I'm also sorry if it's just a lot of waffle.**

 **Beth x**


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